Rural Health
News by Topic: Health workforce supply and demand
Dec 19, 2024 - Highlights a rural Federally Qualified Health Center in Massachusetts and challenges with offering services including workforce shortages, affordable housing for staff, and surge capacity for variable population rates throughout the year.
Source: Commonwealth Beacon
Dec 19, 2024 - Reports on physician shortages in rural communities and efforts to reduce those shortages through practice incentives. Discusses remaining barriers including funding for rural residencies, the amount of time necessary to launch a rural residency, and patient density for specialists.
Source: Medscape Medical News
Dec 19, 2024 - Reports on trends on maternal health and mortality in Arizona and drivers of poor outcomes such as limited mental health training for providers, mental health workforce shortages, and stigma. Discusses rural-specific challenges in accessing care like transportation, labor and delivery service access, broadband, and low provider reimbursement rates for care.
Source: Tuscon Sentinel
Dec 12, 2024 - Describes the impacts of a shortage of maternal healthcare in Nebraska as described to the Nebraska Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee. Discusses effective policies and programs for workforce recruitment and retention and better healthcare access including student loan repayment programs, adjusted reimbursement rates, and remote surgeries.
Source: KETV
Dec 12, 2024 - Discusses the use of virtual healthcare by a rural, South Dakota-based healthcare system to address rural health issues including workforce shortages and easier access to healthcare. Highlights the facility that the system uses to test innovative methods of care.
Source: Health Leaders Media
Dec 12, 2024 - Announces a new program to support American Indian and Alaska Native students in completing psychology degrees. Notes the underrepresentation in the Alaskan workforce leading to limited culturally-relevant care and workforce shortages in rural areas.
Source: Native News Online
Dec 11, 2024 - Highlights the University of Washington School of Dentistry's Regional Initiatives in Dental Education (RIDE) program, a training program for dentistry students wanting to practice in rural communities. Notes the shortage of dentists in rural areas of the state. Describes the hands-on training and the benefits of practicing in small communities.
Source: University of Washington Magazine
Dec 6, 2024 - Describes the role physician assistants (PAs) can play in increasing access to mental healthcare, particularly for rural residents. Notes the increase in mental healthcare-trained PAs in the previous decade as well as the more diverse workforce compared to the physician workforce. Free registration may be required to view full article.
Source: Medscape Medical News
Dec 3, 2024 - Offers updates on the planning and implementation of the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences, a rural residential high school focusing on training students for careers in healthcare. Notes rural health disparities and workforce shortages the school aims to improve.
Source: Alabama Reflector
Dec 3, 2024 - Reports on new data showing that children in the poorest and most rural Colorado counties are more likely to have a parent or sibling die. Highlights factors likely contributing to this disparity. Discusses challenges with access to therapy and support services for rural children and efforts to overcome those challenges through recruiting rural behavioral healthcare workforce.
Source: The Colorado Sun